I started working with Mysql Workbench 5.0.23 today, which they list as the successor to the sometimes buggy, sometimes brilliant FabForce DB4 mysql modeling tool.  I”m not the guy to give you a feature by feature breakdown on the product, but I can tell you this:  When you create a new product version you should never take what were free features in the predecessor and make them extras you only get in the “standard edition.”

In this case, the import tool and database re-engineering tools which were really the only reason I ever fired the product up are now blanked out in the new tool.  You want them, you pay $99.00 US.  The problem is I typically use this feature once a year or so, and frankly, if it isn’t dramatically improved in the new version, I’d be very upset to pay for it.

So for now, I stick with my old DB4 tool, which, warts and all, often can get the job I need done.

Oh, and the new Workbench UI seems like a complete paradigm shift.  I just wanted to do a gnarly little import, not learn a whole new application today.

Perhaps if you’re a MySQL DBA the tool would be useful, but for me, it looks like it’ll go unused.